Leaving Melbourne for a while, I started out my last trip in the country by travelling the Great Ocean Road, Australia's answer to California's Pacific Coast Highway. Indeed, many sections reminded me of Route 1, the undulating grassy farmland ending abrubptly at the sea.

That said, the drive is much less congested and the towns along the way are small and quiet (at least in late Autumn). I spent the night in a lovely guesthouse in Apollo Bay and drove a bit farther along the coast the next day. I thought the section after Apollo Bay to be more scenic.

This is one of the many fantastic limestone formations that tower off the coast.

Awesome limestone towers.

Awesome limestone towers.

This one will be a banner on my blog one day.

The Razorback

About the Razorback

This nook was throwing off some excellent Sharper Image Sound Machine vibes.

Limestone cliff hole bridge coast thingy

Leaving the Great Ocean Road behind, I struck up north through lovely sheep-filled countryside. In the distance, you can make out the Grampian Mountains rising from the plains.

Not far from here, I stopped at a small sheep's milk dairy and got a tour from the owner, Bruce. It turns out that sheep's milk is much better for humans than cow's milk, indeed it can be drunk straight from the sheep with no homogenization required. Bruce gave me a glass, it tasted fresh, light and a bit grassy. Lovely. I also sampled some of their homemade yogurts and cheeses and walked away with a pint for breakfast the next morning.

I stayed at the YHA Eco-hostel in Hall's Gap, the heart of the Grampians. The hostel is an excellent facility, designed with all the mod-cons, but with top energy efficiency and low impact. They feed kitchen scraps to their chickens and have fresh eggs for the guests to use every morning, I've never cooked with eggs straight from the hen before- like the sheep, they were light, tasty and slightly grassy. Yum.

Anyway, I met Wendy that night, she'd been living there for some months hiking and rock climbing. Since I had a car, I offered to take her along on a hike to one of the areas she hadn't been to yet. We picked this one, the "strenuous" hike to Briggs Bluff. In all, it turned out to be quite a bit easier than a walk up mission peak. Still, the scenery was excellent.